Persons accessing the Internet(a)(b)

Footnote(s): (a) Year ending 30 June.
(b) Aged 15 years and over. Data was not collected for people in very remote areas of Australia, which is likely to have had the most impact on Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander estimates as a higher proportion of the population lives in remote areas, and would be less likely to have Internet access.

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders are less likely to have Internet access than non-Indigenous people. In 2008-09, 62% of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders had access to the Internet compared with 74% for non-Indigenous people. This partly reflects the relative difference in socioeconomic status between Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders and non-Indigenous people, and also reflects the increased likelihood of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders living in remote areas.

Employment and level of educational attainment also affect the uptake of Internet access (see the Home Internet section for more information). The unemployment rate for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders was 17% in 2008, over four times the rate for non-Indigenous Australians, while only 40% of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders aged 25-64 years had non-school qualifications compared with 61% of the non-Indigenous population (see Work for more information; ABS 2009b).

Some of the difference may also be attributable to the increased difficulty in accessing the Internet in remote areas, as Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders are much more likely than non-Indigenous people to live in remote areas (22% of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders aged 15-64 years compared to 2% of non-Indigenous people in the same age group in 2009) (ABS 2010e).